The 5 Best VPNs for France in 2018

France is a fantastic country when it comes to equal rights and freedom of speech. Although these are great things to have, they are overlooked by the increase in surveillance in the last few years. Recently, France has been subject to oppressive laws and heavy privacy violation with massive residential databases based on biometric data. This is why, at this point in time, it is important to have your online security and privacy in check. If you live in France, having a VPN is essential if you want to keep your online life private to your Government.

VPNs will allow you to spoof your location, pretending to be somewhere else. They also encrypt your network which has the benefit of hiding your data from your ISP, as well as from the overriding authorities. The encryption is important because if you want to get the best speeds and service, you need to be on a server in your country.

The 5 Best VPNs for France

To help you evade the harsh privacy laws and surveillance of the French Government, we have put together a list of the best VPNs you can use in France. These will help you and other French individuals have more online freedom away from the oppressive authorities and databases. These services all have servers in France, allowing you to be hidden from ISPs as well as to achieve the best connection speeds available.

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is one of the best VPNs in the industry and is trusted by millions of oppressive and regular individuals who want more online privacy. If you live in France, this is one of the best VPNs you can try out because they have lightning-fast connection speeds and tough encryptions – everything a French person would need to surf the web privately. They have close to a hundred servers with servers in and around France. They are a great service and we recommend you give them a shot.

In addition to having tough encryptions and great speeds, they also have more features that make them very appealing to users. They have a very easy-to-use client and allows for 5 simultaneous connections, letting you protect all of the devices in your home. They also are one of the few services that can unblock Netflix and BBC IPlayer, so if you enjoy streaming this service is for you. Along with P2P being allowed and a 30-day money back guarantee, you can’t go wrong with this VPN.

NordVPN

Of course, NordVPN is going to be on this list. When it comes to security and privacy, NordVPN is an absolute powerhouse. They have some additional security features that make them very appealing, including a double encryption feature and the ability to push your VPN connection through the Tor network. Overall, if you’re looking for privacy, NordVPN is your service.

They also have a strict zero logs policy and are based in Panama, which excludes them from any nosey authorities. They secure their connections using a tough 256-bit encryption with an OpenVPN protocol. This gives you the best security in the industry. They also have kill switches and DNS leak prevention on their clients, giving you extra security if the connection goes down. They a cheap services (compared to ExpressVPN) and have a 30-day money back guarantee.

CyberGhost

CyberGhost is well-known in the industry for providing high-quality servers as well as a free VPN. Many people claim that they no longer have the free version but with a bit of digging on their website, you can find it. Anyway, this is not about the free version, this is about their security/privacy. CyberGhost is locked down when it comes to privacy and offers strong encryptions along with a strict no logging policy. They also have a nifty client and let you choose servers based on your purpose.

One of the main things that make CyberGhost shine though, is their superior speeds. In our tests, CyberGhost was incredibly fast and offered some of the fastest connection speeds I’ve ever come across. They also have over 600 servers in 30+ locations, giving you plenty of options when it comes to location spoofing. Their service is averagely priced and is definitely recommended if you’re looking for a VPN for France.

IPVanish

IPVanish is another fantastic service when it comes to speeds and high-quality connections. This provider makes for an excellent French VPN because of its tough encryptions and wide array of server locations. IPVanish has been in the industry for years now and is considered a veteran amongst expert users. They have 60 different locations, allowing you to connect to anywhere in the world, including France.

Their encryption is 256-bit AES and they OpenVPN as their protocol. IPVanish is, unfortunately, based in the US which means they are under the watching eye of the NSA. However, IPVanish has an excellent logging policy and there is no chance of your internet activities being exposed. As for other features, IPVanish allows for P2P activity for the French torrenters among you and they accept multiple connections from one account. The best thing about this VPN is you can try it out for free with their 7-day free trial. So we urge you to give it a spin.

VyprVPN

The final VPN on this list is VpyrVPN which is another personal favorite of mine. This VPN is unique as it is owned by a huge company called Golden Frog. Because it is owned by a million dollar company, this VPN has a lot of resources and that is why it is fantastic for use in France. Firstly, the entire network is owned by the company giving you some of the best speeds in the industry. They can make tweaks and adjustments when they like without any third-party interference. They also have hardcore security and will 100% keep you private when you’re surfing the web.

In addition, they have over 700 servers in over 70 different countries, including France, and they have apps for a range of devices that are easy-to-use even if you’re a beginner. They also have a range of features that help to get around blockers and deep package inspections, including chameleon which helps individuals escape the GFW. Overall, this is a fantastic VPN and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a VPN in France.

Surveillance in France

Getting a VPN in France is very important because their surveillance laws can be quite harsh when you compare them to other countries. Over the years they have passed a number of acts that have been questionable at the least. These have given France the right to collect very private data from a number of technology companies about their users. This sparked a lot of protests and also caught the attention of the Human Rights Watch. Of course, as you will read later, the current events in France didn’t help the case at all.

In 2014, France passed their first major surveillance law and did it suspiciously quietly. This act targeted communication networks and company and allowed for the collection of a particular data, including caller and caller IDs, call duration and much more. In 2015, a bill was passed that brought up even more controversy. One of the rules in the act stated that ISPs had to install what is known as a “black box” which gives them rights to search for unusual patterns. The fear here is that this would leave ISPs no choice but to follow the rules of copyright agencies. Luckily, this bill never became law.

Events That Changed French Privacy

More recently, there has been a huge number of events that have spiked a lot of debate about the surveillance of the web in France. Many of you will know which events I am talking about because they were posted all over social media and the news. In particular, terrorist events have caused a lot of interest because it is common for terrorists to use online communications to set up plans.

At the start of January 2015, Al-Qaeda stored into a building and took a bunch of people hostage in a Newspaper Office. In this event, two individuals were killed and eleven were left injured. In November 2015, more tragedy hit France with the mass shootings and café bombs that killed over 100 people. This event was huge and was the first major disaster in France coordinated by ISIL. Finally, in 2016, a cargo truck drove through a crowd of people in Nice during a festival, killing a total of 86 individuals.

As you can see, these events shaped the privacy laws that were later to come in France and the Government wanted to stop these events being organized.

Conclusion

France is one of the more heavily surveillance areas in Europe asides from the UK. They have been subject to a lot of attacks in recent years and it is understandable why they may want to clamp down on activity that resides online behind closed doors. However, through these surveillance bills, they are destroying the privacy of millions of ordinary people and this is why it is essential for you to get a VPN for France.

It will be able to cloak you and hide you from your ISP, just in case they are being coerced by the French Government. If you value your online privacy, we suggest you pick one of the services listed above, as they’re all fantastic for France.